Catch Up

Okay - here's a glimpse of our lives in the last few months... captions will be few, pictures will be plentiful. I'm sick of playing catch up so here goes nothing!

Easter - 3/23/08
Easter also fell on Addy's birthday this year but since we had her birthday party the day before she was pretty oblivious.

This year was neat though because with all the hype about Easter we were really able to talk to Addy about what Easter is not about (Easter baskets, pretty dresses, Easter eggs, etc.) and more importantly, we were able to plant some seeds in her head about what Easter is about... celebrating Jesus' death and ressurection for the forgiveness of our sins. By the time Easter was here she had it down!

But that doens't mean they didn't get Easter baskets... :)



John Michael's cute hat:



John Michael chose Easter to make his debut in Dr. Mario.. yes, the original NES game.




a poor attempt at an Easter picture... Thats M&Ms on John Michael's mouth.

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John Michael's favorite position:




Addy & John Michael's cousin, Ajai, wasn't able to be at Addy's birthday party so he stopped over with his cousin with some cupcakes and candles to have a mini party for her. She loved it~







This was one of the first nice days we had outside.... it was probably last week. haha.. just kidding - i think it was the end of march/beginning of april.




Addy complaining that she didn't want me to take her picture...




But here she is cooperating in her new house she got from GG & Bampa Bampa for her birthday. She loves this house - and especially loves to pretend she is a pig and someone else is the big bad wolf coming to blow her house down.



Here's John Michael taking a crack at the teeter totter with me.




not too sure.....





ahh... this is fun!






this year addy's finally mastering the art of bubble blowing.





A quick picture from Julie's Shower out here. This is "the family" that was there. Shannon has since had her baby as you read about several weeks ago. :) I can't believe Julie gets married in 5 days!!





Daddy bonding time








Addy has this funny habit of pretending to sleep when we go to get her out of the car seat. She thinks its so funny... so we always play along and tease her by saying things like, "Oh, how sad! Addy's sleeping, now we're going to have to go eat dinner without her." Then she will open her eyes and giggle.




John Michael thinks its funny too. For months he's been watching Addy do this and now he is trying to play along.... but he can't seem to keep his eyes closed very long so he usually just ends up turning his head away. :)




Some pictures from our trip to the zoo






John Michael is such a stinker.... One of these days I'd like to write about all the stinker-like things he does. It reminds me so much of Johnny... Here he is being silly and making faces for the camera. I didn't quite capture the moment but thought i'd post it for my own memory's sake!




John Michael also loves cars. He loves to get in th van and pretend like he's driving and he is rather obsessive about his Uncle DD's motorcyle. (I'll post pictures of him on the motorcylce soon) Here he is at a park playing with the pretend car.





this picture is a bit haunting to me but I kinda like it. :)




A few more from atlanta.

So, for whatever reason my kids, who really aren't picky eaters, never quite took to steak.... but when we were in Atlanta my sister and Adam made this awesome beef steak-ish thing for dinner... and made the kids chicken. But they both kept wanting to eat the steak! Thats when it occurred to me.... they always like my steak... they just don't like it when its their own... Why is that I wondered? And it occured to me that I always order their steak medium and mine medium rare... and probably because of the size of a kids steak, theirs usually ends up more like medium well... So, since then I've been ordering their steak medium rare and they DEVOUR it.

Here are some pictures of them in Atlanta enjoying their new treat.



she'll kill for posting this one day.... hehe



Thats it for now! Happy Memorial Day everyone!

new blog

well, i finally caved in and took the advice of a lot of friends and started a photography blog! I wasn't sure this was really in my best interest considering my update history on this blog over the past several months... but it will give me an easier way to display my newer work without overtaking this blog or having to udate my website all the time (which proves to be a lengthy process...) So, without further ado, please allow me to introduce

Michelle Hamstra Photography Blog

Here's a taste of some new looks going on....




Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Tara!

Today is my favorite sister's birthday!!



The reasons I love and respect Tara are endless but I'll share a few with you and end with some pictures of our trip to visit her and Adam in Atlanta!

Tara is:

1. One of the most thoughtful people I have ever met. She not only thinks of extravagant and special ways to encourage or bless people but she actually does them too! Which leads me to number two.

2. She is extremely generous. There is no price limit or sphere of closeness that makes sense when Tara gets it in her head to bless someone. She is regularly putting me to shame with her level of generosity toward me, our extended family, her close friends, MY close friends and people that she isn't even close with!

3. She is compassionate. It seems like there have been a lot of people in Tara's life (close friends or just friends of friends) who have gone through traumatic experiences over the past few years. I am always amazed at how deeply this affects my sister. She will be overwhelmed with compassion when she hears of someone's hard situation and I believe this is a direct reflection of the heart of God.

4. She adores my kids. I am so grateful to God to have so many people in my life who love and enjoy my kids... but Tara takes it to a whole new level. She laughs at the stories I tell her, will talk with my kids on the phone regardless of whether she can understand them. She showers them with gifts and love and attention... and she will lay down her comfort to care for both their needs and wants. Unless you are a mom yourself you can't possibly know what its like to have people in your life who love your kids like you do!

5. She is my best friend. There was a time when our family would have laughed (and we probably would have too) to think of Tara and I even being civil to one another (oh, adolescence!!) but though over the years I have made some deep, incredible friendships with several girls, I have found no friend more faithful, more caring, more available than Tara. She will drop anything and everything to help me through any situation I have - from dinner recipes to marital conflict. She is the first person I call and I'm so glad!

6. She loves God. I saved this one for last because it is the most important thing you can say about a person. Over the past couple of years I have watched God unfold a new dimension in my sister. All of these characteristics of my sister are nice and commendable but without God they would all be lacking. However, my sister has taken these God given gifts and given them back to Him in the way she loves Him, serves Him and enjoys Him.

I'm so grateful to God Tara for both the work He has done and is continuing to do in your life and for giving you to me as a sister. I am truly blessed. LOVE YOU and Happy Birthday!


As promised - here are some pictures of our trip to Atlanta in April.

Uncle Adam bought us all tickets to go to a Braves game. It was rainy so we thought about ditching... but I'm so glad we decided to "brave" it! We didn't stay for the whole game but the kids had a blast.




Addy & John Michael at the Braves game excited to stand by the number 3!! I had to post two since we couldn't get them to look at the same time... hehe





My mom was able to go with us and I'm so glad because a trip through the airport with two + one on the way by myself might've killed me! Besides the fact that I just lov being with her of course.... :)

And it wouldn't be an event with GG unless we had popcorn!







I'm so sad because I had this awesome picture of John Michael eating a snow cone that Adam bought for him but I seem to have lost it!

Anyway - a sweet end to a great day:

Addy reading a bedtime story with Uncle Adam:

fast forward

We had a lovely Mothers Day! We were able to see both of our moms and both of my incredible grandmas! Thank you moms & grandmas for all you do for us. I'd loe to do some posts on you guys in the near future!

For Mother's Day gifts this year I was thinking about buying the moms some plants.... boring I know! But in the end I decided to take some pictures of the kids and have them developed. So, I thought I'd share the pictures we took.







Peek a Boo!!!

updates

Well, I'm back from Hawaii! For those of you who didn't know I was going, Johnny & I have been saving our frequent flyer miles and our Marriott reward points for five years to go somewhere special on our 5 year anniversary - and crazy enough - we had enough to go to Hawaii for less than a couple hundred dollars! (besides food & entertainment obviously). I'll post pictures of that soon, but meanwhile here are some updates of the kids, as promised. I'm really motivated to blog more. My friend Rebecca just blogged a year in review entry because she said she just can't remember things well and she doesn't want to forget! Well, neither do I and I am looking forward to looking back on these entries with fondness in my heart, remembering how precious these days are - even though sometimes they feel a bit rough around the edges. ;)

Also... I thnk that part of the reason I am hesitant to blog sometimes is because I think people think all of my pictures should look professional. Well, the truth is I rarely shoot professional quality pictures of my own kids. (I'd like to do more though!) I generally use my little point & shoot camera and don't do any editing - so be prepared for some everyday pictures from now on! Its the only way I'll actually post things!

Well, to start with, here are some pictures from March - before Easter... hehe.. I know, I'm bad!!


This is a picture of Addy playing hide & seek. Not only does she hide in the most obvious places (with her entire body sticking out of the hiding spot!) She totally lacks creativity. She'll go to the exact same place over and over again. I thought it was just because she's young (almost 3 in these pictures) but I think she's just... simple. :)




And a few of the little man... already I forgot why I took these. Probably just because he makes such silly facial expressions while eating. :)








Johnny & I went downtown to celebrate my Aunt Linda's 50th birthday party. We took a couple of pictures beforehand but none really while we were there.



My mom and Dad:



John Michael also got his first haircut! His hair is quite thin and not very long... but it was growing funny over his ears and he had random long peices throughout his hair. I thought about cutting it myself but I kind of like the certificate and experience of the "first hair cut." $25 dollars later I'm thinking that experience is definitely a once in a lifetime thing!!



Me & my handsome big boy! They didn't cut much off but he sure looked older afterwards!



I love these hats my mom bought the kids from Hannah Anderson. Addy has one too and calls it her bunny hat. We have names for all of her coats & hats... She has a monkey coat, a polar bear coat, and a few others. She loves animals!



The night before Easter my parents babysat the kids so that Tara (my sister), Adam (my bro-in-law), Johnny and I could go see a movie. I so wish they lived closer. We love hanging out with them. We didn't get any pictures of them but here are some my parents took of the kids.

They went to Tyler's Tender - the kids love it there! Its a little train restaurant that has a train you can ride on in a circle, a stationary train and if you sit at the bar a train delivers your food to you just like in Mr. Roger's Neighborhood!!



On that note I'm off to bed... its already late and I'm trying desperately to get readjusted to Chicago time!

Coming up: Easter pictures, Addy's mini birthday party and a trip to Atlanta!!